The presently disclosed embodiments are directed toward systems and methods for image manipulation. For example, images that include small, high-contrast image elements are scaled and/or rotated in a manner that preserves the small, high-contrast image elements and minimizes the production of undesirable image manipulation artifacts.
It is often desirable to manipulate an image or data representing an image. For example, images are resized and/or reoriented to suit a particular purpose. For instance, slides from a business presentation may be reduced in size so that a reference printout including several slides per individual page can be produced. Photographs or portions of photographs may be enlarged or reduced in size to be included in a booklet, catalog or brochure. Images that were originally intended to be rendered in a first orientation, such as, for example, landscape, may be rotated in order to be rendered in a portrait orientation. Image data from documents that were hastily placed on a platen and scanned may be processed to rotate or deskew the scanned image to compensate for an improper alignment of the document on the platen.
In many instances, known image data manipulation techniques produce high-quality manipulated image data that can be used to render visually pleasing images. For example, when image data represents pictorial or business graphic data depicting relatively large and/or gradually changing image objects, known image manipulation techniques typically provide manipulated image data that can be rendered in a visually pleasing manner.
However, we have determined that for at least some image types or classes, known image manipulation techniques can produce manipulated image data that includes displeasing image manipulation artifacts. For example, where image data includes small, high-contrast image elements, such as halftone structures (e.g., dots, lines, etc.) or text, known image manipulation techniques can produce image data that results in rendered images that appear noisy and may be printed differently over time as conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity, wear, etc.) change.
Therefore, there has been a desire for improved or alternative image manipulation methods and systems for manipulating image data that includes small, high-contrast image elements.